surely someone did this.
if you had nothing and started with the dynacorn body challenger, what would it cost to make it a running driving car, with interior, less paint and prep for paint.
Just hard/soft parts to get it moving and make it out fitted to drive around with passengers.

did someone add up the new parts and what it would cost?
Lets say stock parts, not stuff like magnum force front ends, or dana 60's but regular 8 3/4.

Just due to the overall cost of even a trashed e-body.
more of an exercise rather than actual interest in building one, till they come up with a convertible body.
or they come up with the charger body.

A reproduction body is just that. Reproduction. Not an actual car. If you put a VIN tag from a 1970 car on a reproduction body, you are misrepresenting this fake made in Taiwan body as a real Challenger, which it is not.
Restoring an actual Challenger is a big undertaking, but even if you replace 70% of that body with reproduction panels, it is still an actual original car, that has been restored.

sure I get that.
I was just curious the cost of starting with a clean body vs fixing a car.
based on current prices of e-bodies, it seems like it might be cheaper.
local laws allow me to register it as a project car with its own vin, so not a challenger.

I was just looking around and figured the camero body would be cheap to build since pretty much the whole car worth of parts can be ordered new from chevy still.

Depends on what a project challenger costs and the level of parts replacement necessary to make it nice again. Also I suspect it would be faster to build a car from a clean body vs one that needed most of it replaced. You would need to scrounge up all the inner door hardware, dash, pedals, heater box and all the essentials via parts cars or junkyarding.

I see the repo bodies as perfect for hot rods and pro touring builds. Using a new body to "recreate" a long dead 440-6 or Hemi car would be a lame move.

Opinions aside, you're still going to need a Challenger to start with for all the missing pieces. That's a sunk cost either way.

The difference is in how much you spend buying and installing replacement panels on that Challenger vs now much the repop shell costs.

Things like paint, bondo, weatherstripping are the same either way.

Refurbishing assemblies like the gauges, window regulators, suspension are the same either way.

As pointed out, the complete shell can be a huge time saver, in more ways than one.

I'm not a numbers guy unless we're referring to the rare stuff. A 318 Challenger isn't rare.

so this is a 318 challenger.
body done, no paint.
seems to have a lot of parts.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/125166078725





I doubt it will go for 18k, but again just for discussion.
the dynacorn body is 14 or 15k with shipping.

so say 3 or 4k worth of parts, could you make it equal to what is shown here?

LMAO !!

You find an original hemi 'cuda. Drivetrain was pulled and stored indoors. Dash with VIN and fender tag are all there including build sheet BUT the shell is rotted away up to the shock towers.

Now tell us you wouldn't put together a Dynacorn car !!

A "rebody" and replacing every piece of sheet metal are one and the same! The car is only "original" ONCE.

Id have no problem owning a Dynacorn majority mopar if done right. I don't care about originality and value. Id enjoy a rust free car that would last a long time.

lol, this is not a Ship of Theseus discussion.
just trying to figure out at what point is it cheaper to build from scratch vs fixing one. lol.
again purely theoretical, as I don't want a hard top car.

I think glass, trim that is any good, rear diff and suspension, oh and at least the interior skeleton parts like seat frames and such, would be hard to pick up for under 4k.
so that might give the edge to the rebuild category, except I really envision that one selling closer to 22 to 25k not 18, but could be wrong about the current e-body market.

All depends on who is going to do the work. I think you would need a good shop with at least one super sharp body guy to build a car from a dynacorn. I'm not a body guy myself but I've been in the mix on several builds where reproduction stuff was being used and none of the reproduction stuff was very good. In some cases the reproduction stuff was junked, in other cases the repo stuff was returned to the vendor since it couldn't be used. In the situations where the reproduction stuff was used it required a very skilled body guy to make it work. As in adjustments using a frame machine, cutting and welding, panel reshaping, etc. It wasn't a bolt together kind of project and it wasn't a skim it with bondo and call it good either. There were problems such as side marker lights in the wrong location, bumper locations wrong, door hinges in the wrong places, etc.

That is an interesting point.
I can bolt stuff together, but body work is not my thing.
I was forgetting complaints about aftermarket panels not fitting and such.
heck, I got a set of door handles for my 65, that the original bolt didn't fit in. I had to use the one that came with them to even bolt it up to my door.

That maybe why I hadn't heard anyone doing it, or they don't want to advertise they did it.

What do those bodies cost?

Dynacorn missed the mark and misread the market.
The 70-71 Barracuda bodies would have been a better bet. I have yet to hear of anyone that actually bought one of those Challenger bodies.
Nowadays, a 68-70 Charger body would be a smart choice to reproduce. There are rotted R/T models that are advertised for $20,000.

The msrp is around 13500.
no front fenders or hood.
there are a couple of places that will include those items for the same price. so you have the complete body and dash it looks like.
no wiring, interior, gas tank, glass, suspension front or rear etc..

the camaro convertible has a place that will also include the top frame with the front fenders and hood for the msrp price from dynacorn.

I can't see it being even somewhat practical without a donor car. Otherwise the onesey twosey parts costs would eat you alive. So let's get a rusty complete car, one that barely casts a shadow - $15,000. Refurbish everything from the donor, dashpad, interior, engine, trans, brakes, glass, electrical, etc. - $20,000. Then the body for $14,000. Then paint for $10,000. You'll have right at $60,000 in it with my back of the napkin chicken scratching.

Half baked, its why they havent caught on. If people need a donor they'll just fix the donor with AMD metal and have a real challenger. If they made 68-70 chargers then I think it would be a different story, an even better story if they sold them as rollers like they do with the superformance cobras.

I agree, a roller would make more sense. The vendor needs to put these cars together so they can see the problems and fix them. When they sell kits the fitment problems get outsourced to the customer and usually ignored. If the vendor is forced to deal with the fitment problems then they fix the root cause issue and everybody wins.

Yes and as long as they could be competitively priced I imagine a "dealership" just for "new" camaros, mustangs, cudas, chargers as complete rollers could work. They have to be sold as rollers otherwise they are considered a new car manufacturer and they would have to meet all current crash and emissions testing. I'll take a black/black 69 charger R/T please, and fit it with a new 6.4L hemi and 6-speed.

actually there was a new law passed I thought. small manufactures could produce a small number of turn key cars and be based on what they were supposed to be vs new manufactuer.
I remember that from a few years back.

I think the only way they make sense from a scratch built perspective is to go racecar type custom instrument panel, dash and interior. The OEM doodads would eat you alive if it has to at least appear correct. Not that the custom/aftermarket stuff is cheap either but at least it's all new.

Kevin